Between Architecture and Planning: Urban Design Education in Poland against a Background of Contemporary World Trends

Abstract

Urban design, as an academic discipline, was born in the 20th century in response to challenges related to the planning, design, and renewal of urbanized areas. Since then, there has been an ongoing debate about the scope, scientific basis, and teaching formula of the discipline. The aim of this article was to assess the formula for teaching urban design at an academic level in Poland, considering global trends in this field. The theoretical framework involved a review of contemporary scientific concepts, which provided the basis for extracting the most popular and well-recognized domains, definitions, and dimensions of urban design. The research results confirm that urban design has permanently taken its place between architecture and urban planning. In Poland, but not only, the elements of both the theory and practice of urban design are dispersed among various master’s degree courses. This is not conducive to strengthening the position of urban design as such, and in Poland, it may be one of the reasons for deepening spatial chaos.